Once upon a time there
was a place called the Nekromanteion (oracle of the dead).
It was built in the 4th century BC. It was on an island in a
swampy lake, part of the estuary of the river
Styx.

Here, pilgrims could
visit the dead, after suitable preparation by the
priests.

Of course, to reach the
island, one had to pay the ferryman--

.The place declined in importance from the
second century AD, but a Christian church was built there in
the 18th Century. Then, in the 1950s, probably as part of
the campaign against malaria, the lake was drained. By now
the river was called the Acheron. And the locals turned the
land to agriculture. The Nekromanteion is on the mound in
the centre of the picture above, already being encroached
upon by modern housing. But then, the secrets of this
ancient holy place weren't fully revealed until as late as
1977.

The beautifully
fashioned walls are very thick, and contain secret
passages.

The pilgrims had to be
prepared to meet the dead. They were fed on juniper berries
and ouzo for three days, then led through a labyrinth into a
darkened inner sanctum, then descended into the dimly lit
sacred room, the palace of Hades and Persephone, where the
ghosts of the dead came to communicate with the
pilgrims.

-and here it is, with
Kathryn awaiting the souls of the dead!

Of course, after that
diet, the pilgrims were drugged and confused, and ready to
believe anything. The archeologists found a mechanism by
which the priests lowered images of the dead into the
chamber to fool the pilgrims. The pilgrims were then sent
home a different route, so they couldn't reveal their
experiences to the next pilgrims to come.

After all these
centuries, the whole myth becomes reality - and a
fraud!

But some still believe
you have to pay the ferryman!

The Greek Hades, and the
Jewish Sheol (Hell) go back at least to a thousand years
BCE.

However, our present
traditions about Hades, including paying Charon the
ferryman, come from the writings of Virgil, in the first
century BCE. This was three hundred years after the
Nekromanteion was set up, and so we can understand some of
the tradition at least.

The Acheron river was named in mythology as
one of the five rivers of Hades, and is today still
difficult to explore. It comes through a narrow limestone
gorge, fast flowing, cold, and because of shoals, hard to
navigate. The ancients would have been reluctant to search
for its source. Now identified as the original Styx, it is
actually a place of great beauty. Lime in the water gives it
a unique colouring. Virgil called it the Cyanne, a very apt
name.